The Bolsonaro clan: A presidential hopeful, four new parliamentarians and a tangle of internal issues

The Bolsonaro family tree can be very confusing, so a guide is often helpful. “God, homeland, family and liberty” is the slogan that sums up the idea of Brazil put forward by the clan in recent years. The most radical Bolsonarists interpret the term “family” in the most traditional sense — father, mother, children and perhaps a pet — even though millions of Brazilians do not fit that model. Not even Jair Messias Bolsonaro, 71, the former military officer who restored pride and visibility to Brazil’s far right. After three marriages and two divorces, the patriarch formed a family with five children (four adult men, all politicians, and one teenager), a political clan that also includes his current wife, a family shaken by scandals and endless internal tensions. Last Sunday, the former president’s eldest son, Flávio Bolsonaro, won the first round of the election against incumbent President Lula, and five Bolsonaros won parliamentary seats. Here is a guide to help keep track.

Jair Bolsonaro, 71, the jailed former president

On Monday Jair Bolsonaro asked the judge for permission to receive a visit from his son Flávio. They have not seen each other since July, when the patriarch published a letter endorsing his candidacy. Bolsonaro Sr. was last seen in May, when he left his home — where he is serving house arrest — to undergo shoulder surgery. He has a range of health problems that have allowed him to avoid prison for most of his sentence, except for a brief period.

He is serving a 27-year term for leading an attempted coup that included plans to kill Lula and Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes. The court’s sentence bars him from holding elected office and prohibits him from using a cellphone or social media. His son promises to pardon him if he wins the election.

Flávio Bolsonaro, 45, ‘Zero One,’ presidential candidate

He is the eldest of the three sons the retired military man had with his first wife, Rogeria Bolsonaro. The night’s big winner. His father calls them Zero One, Zero Two… in a military-style nickname system. Flávio has worked in politics since finishing law school. Elected senator in 2019, he previously served as a state deputy for Rio de Janeiro. He is considered the least radical of the brothers.

Last December, his father surprised many by naming him the candidate against those who preferred other contenders to lead the right against President Lula: the centrão parties, the broad center-right, economic elites, and evangelical leaders. “I hand over the most important thing in a father’s life: his own son, to rescue our Brazil. It is a conscious, legitimate decision backed by the desire to preserve the representation of those who trusted me,” the ex-president wrote in a letter published on Christmas Day. The Supreme Court is investigating Bolsonaro Jr. for corruption.

For years Flávio was the operator of the family’s “ghost-employee” scheme, according to El negocio de Jair by investigative journalist Juliana dal Piva. Widespread, the scheme involves supposed staff in parliamentary offices who do no work and hand over almost all their pay to the elected official. It is the mechanism that allegedly allowed the clan to amass significant assets.

Michelle Bolsonaro, 44, wife and evangelical outreach figure

On Sunday she was elected senator. The patriarch’s third wife avoided campaigning alongside her husband’s son to focus on her own campaign and on caring for her jailed husband. He is serving his sentence, for health reasons, at the family chalet in Brasília, where they live with the daughter she brought into the marriage and the daughter they had together, Laura, 15.

Tensions between the children and Bolsonaro Sr.’s current wife, which had been simmering for years, came to a dramatic head last June with an explosive video in which the evangelical woman accused the Bolsonaro brothers of attacking and disparaging her for not meeting their demands regarding electoral candidacies, including increasing the number of female candidates. She is the Bolsonaro movement’s strongest appeal to the evangelical electorate.

Jair Bolsonaro and she met in Congress, when he was a middle-aged backbench deputy and she was a twenty-something secretary. Married for two decades, she is his third wife. While the patriarch was president (2019–2022), she served as a discreet first lady. But in 2022 she was recruited for her husband’s campaign with the aim of softening the rejection he generated among women, and Brazil discovered a different Bolsonaro: softer in appearance, a good speaker, and with strong appeal among conservative women.

She grew up in a Brasília favela in a poor family that had repeated run-ins with the law. Her grandmother was jailed for drug trafficking, according to the UOL podcast Michelle.

Carlos Bolsonaro, 43, ‘Zero Two,’ the digital strategist

Zero Two is the social media wizard, one of the main architects of his father’s 2018 election victory. That is why his father invited him to arrive with him and his wife in a Rolls-Royce on the day he took office. His supporters consider him the family’s pit bull and he has been accused of directing the strategy of so-called digital militias, groups that launch coordinated attacks against critics or dissidents of Bolsonarism.

At 17, his father launched him into an electoral campaign against his mother, from whom he was separating. The son won a council seat in Rio that he held for seven terms. He will now sit in the Senate representing the state of Santa Catarina, one of Brazil’s most Bolsonarist states.

Eduardo Bolsonaro, 42, ‘Zero Three,’ the link to Trump

Trained as a police officer, in recent months he lost his seat in Congress and his job at the Federal Police due to repeated unjustified absences. Since 2025 he has lived in the United States, sent there by the family with a mission to maneuver with the Trump administration so the U.S. president would pressure Brazil — through sanctions, tariffs, whatever it took — to spare the patriarch from the coup-related trial.

The move backfired. Bolsonaro Sr. was convicted and Trump imposed a tariff penalty on his country. President Lula used the episode to gain popularity with a sovereignty-focused speech while accusing the Bolsonaros of treason. Based in Texas, the third son has been convicted by the Supreme Court for obstruction of justice.

Rogeria Bolsonaro, 66, the first wife

The mother of Bolsonaro’s three eldest children ran for federal deputy with the same party as the rest of the clan, the Liberal Party (PL). She was the only close relative who did not succeed on Sunday.

Jair Renan Bolsonaro, 28, ‘Zero Four’

A product of the second marriage, last year he entered politics as a councilor in Balneário Camboriú, a southern city that is strongly Bolsonarist, after a couple of years as a parliamentary aide in Brasília. He has just been elected federal deputy for the state of Santa Catarina, a vote-rich area for the family. His mother, who managed Bolsonaro’s office for a time, is not currently involved in politics.

Renato Bolsonaro, 62, brother

He has just won a seat as a federal deputy in Brasília, where he will make his parliamentary bow alongside his nephew.

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